Squawka’s Team of the Week from Premier League Gameweek 3: Liverpool and Brentford shine
The 2024/25 Premier League is at its first international break. And it went out with a bang.
Across the 10 games there were 30 goals, with six teams grabbing a win, four of which came away from home.
Manchester City and Liverpool continued their perfect start to the new campaign, with Erling Haaland netting yet another hat-trick for the latter — that’s two in as many games now. At the other end of the table, Everton and Southampton remain on zero points, with three teams getting their first points of the campaign.
But which players made the Squawka Premier League Team of the Week for MD3? Here are our 11 picks and the reasoning behind each selection. Every pick is based on the stat leaders for metrics relevant to each position across the gameweek.
GK: Dean Henderson (Crystal Palace)
Crystal Palace ended a 14-game losing streak to Chelsea across all competitions at the weekend with a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge. And Dean Henderson played a huge role. Despite conceding, Henderson made six saves against Chelsea, the joint-most in the Premier League this weekend. He also prevented 1.76 goals, the best in the division for a single game this season.
RB: Yukinari Sugawara (Southampton)
Southampton are still without a point, but Yukinari Sugawara looked good in their defeat to Brentford. The Japanese defender is playing slightly further up the pitch as a wing-back, which did aid him in getting his first goal. But he also created two chances and had five ball recoveries against Brentford.
CB: Wesley Fofana (Chelsea)
For the first time this season, Chelsea’s centre-back pairing looked relatively competent, despite conceding in their draw with Crystal Palace. Wesley Fofana was the more impressive of the duo, which is testament to the Frenchman who missed all of last season due to injury. Against Crystal Palace, Fofana had six ball recoveries and won five of his seven duels, and Chelsea will be hoping the rest over this international break can aid him.
CB: Lewis Dunk (Brighton)
Clean sheets were at a premium this weekend, and defences were kept busy. At times in their game against Arsenal, Brighton were under fire but Lewis Dunk and Co. The Brighton captain led by example at the Emirates, and was involved in the move for his side’s equaliser with an excellent pass to send Yankuba Minteh through.
The goal came after Dunk had been caught out for Arsenal’s opener, which shouldn’t take away from his performance. No centre-back made more ball recoveries than Dunk’s seven in the Premier League this weekend.
LB: Leif Davis (Ipswich)
Completing our defence, Leif Davis has had a tough start to life in the Premier League. But this was his best performance yet. The left-back was one of Ipswich’s stars last season and some were tipping him to be named in England’s squad for Euro 2024.
The Tractor Boys had an unenviable start to the new season, against Man City and Liverpool. They got their first point against Fulham before the international break, and Davis was on form. He created three chances, the joint-most among defenders and had the most ball recoveries at 10.
CM: Mario Lemina (Wolves)
Another team to get their first point of the season this weekend were Wolves, who drew with Nottingham Forest. Goals from both sides came in the opening 15 minutes and Mario Lemina assisted Jean-Ricner Bellegarde’s equaliser. But his performance was more than that.
The Gabonese made more tackles than any other midfielder in the Premier League in gameweek three, with only Noussair Mazraoui matching his eight among the rest of the division. He also made nine ball recoveries, the second-most among midfielders this weekend.
CM: Mikkel Damsgaard (Brentford)
We’ve already gone through one player in Brentford’s victory over Southampton, but now here’s one that was on the winning side. Mikkel Damsgaard was making his first league start of the season having only made seven in 2023/24 due to injury. And what a start it was.
The Dane marshalled Brentford’s midfield alongside compatriots Christian Norgaard and Mathias Jensen. He created three chances and completed two dribbles, alongside his nine recoveries and four tackles. There wasn’t anything he couldn’t do.
RW: Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)
Mohamed Salah loves playing at Old Trafford. The Egyptian has scored seven Premier League goals at the stadium, more than any other visiting player. Number seven came on Sunday, which was also Salah’s 10th in seven games at Old Trafford across all competitions — netting in each match.
But he didn’t just score one. Salah was directly involved in all three of Liverpool’s goals in their 3-0 win over Man Utd, assisting both of Luis Diaz’s strikes. As a whole, Salah had 11 touches inside the opposition box and 21 passes in the final third.
No.10: Bryan Mbeumo (Brentford)
Our second Brentford player, and in more of a supporting role for the striker, is Bryan Mbeumo. The Cameroonian was integral to Brentford’s 3-1 win over Southampton, scoring twice to take his tally for the season to three.
Ensuring Brentford don’t miss Ivan Toney, Mbeumo hit the target with three of his four shots and scored both of his big chances. Playing on the wing, Mbeumo also created three chances and had three crosses, the latter more than any other Brentford player.
LW: Luis Diaz (Liverpool)
Completing our Liverpool wing duo is Luis Diaz, the man who scored two of the Reds’ goals in their 3-0 win over Man Utd. The Red Devils are Diaz’s favourite opponents, with the Colombian now having netted four goals against them in the Premier League.
He had a 100% shot conversion rate and had five touches inside the opposition box. Diaz won three duels, won possession three times and also had five passes in the final third all before coming off in the 66th minute. His damage was done.
ST: Erling Haaland (Man City)
Yawn. Another Premier League game, another Premier League hat-trick for Erling Haaland.
That’s back-to-back hat-tricks for Haaland this season and seven Premier League goals overall. He’s scored eight hat-tricks in total in the Premier League, also breaking better than a goal per game average with 70 in 69.
The Norwegian cyborg had give shots in total, hitting the target with four. With just 21 touches overall, six of those came in the opposition box. But as always with Haaland, he made those touches count.
